House Elves and Pixies are Available

Just listed a couple of smaller house elves and some more pixies.  Here is the listing for the elves:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/462440268/plush-jointed-house-elf-inspired-by-the



We've been finalizing the house elf tutorial.  Now that the head/face are pretty much settled on, I just need to get some better pics of the construction process.



The one is being dubbed "Morty".



And this one is "Wally". They are both the smaller 13-14" tall.



And, the new set of plusher pixies.  These are much safer for kids.  The arms and legs are sewn in.  So happy to have found the plush pixie fabric again.  My sis found it in Kansas.  Our stores do not seem to sell it, and I can't find it online, either.  :/



That's it for now.  The tutorial should be available soon!  (I really do mean this.  I seem to say this, and then something will come up to delay things.  But I am honestly trying my hardest to get it ready.)

More House Elf Progress

Took this guy to the Midnight Release Party for "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" Book.  He's the latest house elf finished after all the pattern alterations I've been playing with.  We've been calling him "Gummy" due to his toothless grin.  I'm so sad that I already finished reading the book in only two sittings.  It went way too fast.



This is Gummy before fixing his mouth into a smile.  If you've been following me on Facebook, you've probably seen me posting quick progress pics to get opinions as I attempt to perfect the heads.  I'm pretty happy with the bodies.  The shoulders are a little broad, but this is due to changing from the button joints to doll joints.  Without the thread running between them, there is no tension holding them together.  I may reduce this at a later date.  Especially if we make another Kreacher with his slumped posture.



This is a before/after shot of the shoulders, ears, eye, and head shape changes.  I'm really pleased with the new ear shape and placement.  But, I've really been struggling with those eyes. I'll show that more in just a bit.  I think the top of the head could be a wee bit wider, but I'm not going to fuss with that this go round.



I was having a lot of difficulty getting the elves to not be either grumpy or sad looking.  I thought it was mostly because of the eyes, but with the help from someone's helpful suggestions in a Harry Potter group, I've discovered I can make their expressions more happy and less mad/sad by creating tension in the cheeks.  The image above is Gummy before and after running thread from his outer eye corners to the corners of his mouth.  So happy!  And, I am too!  :)



The eyes are really bugging me.  At first, we went back and forth with using just plain doll eyes with no lids.  But, this makes the elves look spaced out like the two on top in the pic above.  I did find a way to line the back of the eyes to create eyelids.  I like this, but it's just not right just yet. And, I'm just not happy with eyes with no scleras (white parts) and huge pupils.



So, I tried painting some ping pong balls just to see what it would look like.  I really think it looks more like Dobby, but still a bit creepy.



The above image is of the same elf head (with over-sized eye sockets) with different eyes.  I've been trying different sizes as well as different materials.  Besides looking weird, it is sometimes difficult to find the safety doll eyes large enough for the elves at the larger sizes.  And, they can cost a good deal more when I do find them.  I was also hoping to find materials anyone can find locally for the tutorial.   At first I tried painting and got the iris too big and the pupil too small.  The last two sets in the pic above show a new solution that is promising.  It's a ping pong ball with the safety doll eye poked into a hole in the ball.  The green iris is smaller and centered, and looks scared.  The larger brown eye is off centered and can be rotated for different expressions.  These are great because they are less work, and have the safety back to secure them.  However, the down fall of these is that the eyelid gets caught behind the iris.  Perhaps I need to find a way to glue the iris to the sclera with no ridge between.  I'm also looking into resin as an option t cast my own eyes from scratch.  I'm also wanting to try to transfer printed irises to the white plastic ball.  But, I really need the safety back to secure the eyes in, so they can't be popped out easily.

That's where I am, so far.  I'm hoping to get this figured out so I can wrap up the tutorial. with the best options.  Wish me luck, again!

House Elf Head Progress

Been busy working on the House Elf tutorial.  I've got the body portion pretty much finished.  But, as the pics show, we're making some changes to the heads at this point.  I'll need to wait for the pattern changes to be settled on before I can get the pictures in place. 

So far I've gone back and forth on the size of the eyes, changed the shape of the ears a few times, and played with the angle of the nose/forehead a bit.  Still debating to move the eyes closer together and curve the ears even more.  I would also like to make my own eyes.  These have no whites around them and the pupils are too large.  I think I may have figured out a solution using resin, but I still need to get the supplies to try it.  I think I may wait until after the tutorial is finished using these, since they are less work (though somewhat hard to find).



We are amassing quite a few heads, so we thought we'd use some of the less successful ones to make plaques like the Black family house had on the walls.  :)  I'll share our results on that when I'm finished with them.  In the meantime the tutorial should be available within a month or two, I hope.



Oh!  Btw, here are three body sizes that we've tried so far:  A small 12", a medium 18", and a large 24" (The large is made with a thicker furry-ish fabric.  They will also have heads, soon.  :)

Gnome Tutorial is finished and available on Etsy!

Gnome tutorial is finished!  You can find it here:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/291683093/how-to-make-garden-gnomes-pdf-tutorial

It contains step by step instructions for making our garden gnomes inspired by the Harry Potter series.  We used the Chamber of Secrets and Fantastic Beasts references as well as the Pottermore website and video games.

The Tools and Supplies list looks daunting, but I tried to describe each item so they would be easier to find.

There are options to make them into bean bags or plain dolls.  And, they can be made with or without eyes.

Hope you like the tutorial.  If you try it, I would love to know how it goes!

NOTE:  If anyone has interest in a kit including all fabric/supplies for one of my tutorials, please message me. I'm curious if this would be of use to anyone, especially in doll making. I can buy eyes/joints in bulk that could save you money and time hunting down supplies. I also have surplus supplies for my other crafting projects.

Doxies!!

Another new magical creature to add to the magical menagerie.



These are doxies, or at least our interpretation of what one should look like, since they haven't made an appearance in the Harry Potter movies, yet.  They are described in "Fantastic Beast & Where to Find Them" as:

"...often mistaken for a fairy though it is a quite separate species.  Like the fairy, it has a minute human form, though in the Doxy's case this is covered in thick black hair and has an extra pair of arms and legs.  The Doxy's wings are thick, curved, and shiny, much like a beetle's..."



We made two attempts so far.  The first is more human-like in the face.  With the 2nd one we played on the Doxy name, which is what dachshund dogs have been nicknamed.  The more dog-headed version is our favorite.  We think it is the cutest.



They are about 7" tall with four arms and four legs.  This is smaller than the pixies, which made it really tough to get all those arms and legs to fit on!



The wings are cut from plastic root beer bottle painted underneath with nail polish.  I want to add another transparent set of wings under these in the future.  We've since found some hairier fabric we want to try, too.  So, you may see a new attempt at these at some point.  Not sure how that will go at this size, but we'll give it a try.



These are based off of a fairy pattern we've been working on.   I'll post the tiny fairies once we finish some details and maybe put some clothes on them.

Cornish Pixie Tutorial is Available

Just listed the tutorial/pattern for the Cornish Pixies.  Whew!  It's a long one!  I didn't realize how much my mom and I put into these little guys!  But, I wanted to offer this to those who have expressed the desire to make their own.  The instruction include everything we do on ours, and all the things we have learned in the process.



At 22 pages long, I'm still kinda leery of how complicated it might seem with all the steps.  I'll admit it is a lot to remember.  I'm thinking of offering a simplified version without joints, wired antennae, etc...at some point if necessary.  So, I'd really like to hear how those who try the pattern and tutorial find it to be at different skill levels.



The supply list is even pretty long because I included explanations on each item, and a good portion of it is optional.



I've started a tutorial for gnomes.  I don't think it will be near as long with their simpler construction.  Also plan to work on one for the house elves, but we are still working on a few changes to the pattern.  One of these changes is the size.  We want to work out a life-sized version.  We're up to an 18" one at this point.  I hope to post about him in the near future.  Got a few other projects to post before then.

NOTE:  If anyone has interest in a kit including all fabric/supplies for one of my tutorials, please message me. I'm curious if this would be of use to anyone, especially in doll making. I can buy eyes/joints in bulk that could save you money and time hunting down supplies. I also have surplus supplies for my other crafting projects.

Let's Give This Dementor a Hand

We just recently hosted our daughter's 3rd Harry Potter themed birthday party.  She's now a teenager?!  :O  How time flies!  We had lots of fun with the party.  Even after two previous years of Harry Potter parties, we still managed to create a few new things for year number three's Prisoner of Azkaban theme.



The first one I'll share is for our WIP dementor, Pete (His name is inspired by the Moosebutter song.  We love all the clever Wizard Rock songs out there).  Our dementor never quite got fully assembled, but we may get him finished before year Five when dementors show up near Privet Drive and the Ministry.  But, I managed a pair of hands and a quick mask.  Here is a brief tutorial of how I made the hands:



This process is very similar to how I made my dragon wings.  I started with a wire hanger, some wooden beads (from a Christmas cranberry garland I found on the clearance table years ago.  I've used these beads in many projects.) and lots of masking tape.  I like the masking tape because it was already the color I wanted, it stays flexible and easy to use.



I straightened the hanger and cut the wire to lengths and placed the beads where I wanted them for the joints in the fingers and taped them in place.



Then, I taped the fingers from tip to bottom leaving extra tape off both ends to make a pointy tip.



Next, I taped the fingers together one at a time adding them to the hand.  Then wrapped more tape around to secure them in place.  Some tape was wrapped between the fingers until they wouldn't move around too much.  At this point I bent the fingers to resemble a more natural hand shape.  This isn't really necessary, yet.  They will still be posable once finished.



I painted the taped covered wire with lots of fabric paint.  The mixture of translucent Glow-In-The-Dark and Black slick paint makes a good slimy gray flesh of the dementor.  One good squirt of black directly into the GITD paint bottle should be enough.  (The applicator tip should pop off to make it easier to squirt the black in.)  Shake it really well, and then shake it some more.  You can test it and clear the tip of unmixed paint.  Let it dry to determine the actual color.



Once the whole hand is covered, I added more paint as a webbing between the fingers.  I found the fabric paint bottles were convenient to spread the fingers.



Once completely dry you can pose the hand however you like.  Be sure to not lay it on anything it will stick to.  If it is tacky, rub it with a little corn starch to prevent it from sticking.



This is what I ended up with.  They were fun to pose around the house.  I want to make a second pair with attached arm to hang them on Pete easier.



Here is Pete's face.  I used a plastic skull with it's mouth open to mold a piece of foil over before taping the foil and painting it the same way I did the hands.  It looks lighter, but it is the same color as the hands.  I'm still on the lookout for a suitable fabric for the dementor's robes.  I see that the cheaper decorations this year are using black interfacing-like fabric.  It may be too stiff for my purposes, though.



Our hands ended up guarding the entertainment system cabinet, so older students wouldn't try to skip class and watch football.  :/



But, I think they look just as creepy hanging out in the quidditch trunk my sister made for us.  :)  Next, I hope to post about some shrunken heads my mom and I made and the inexpensive upcycled bell jars we put them into.

Hogwart's Birthday 2nd Year - The Food and Classes

It's been taking me forever to post all the things we did for our 2nd year Harry Potter themed party.  I think I'll wrap it up with this post about the food.



Since our 2nd year party was first and foremost a birthday party, we served a cake for dessert, of course.  This year's cake was inspired by Aunt Petunia's Pudding.  We used a packaged cake mix for a two layer chocolate cake.  Since the pudding looked like it would end up being a lot of frosting, which we're not too fond of, we experimented with ways to make it lighter.  So, I added whipped cream to the frosting.  I may have gotten carried away and used too much whipped cream.  It began to get soft really fast, but there were no complaints about the taste.  :)

We served students the feast dinner of Turkey and all the trimming, including Pumpkin Pasties.



We used the same recipe for pumpkin pasties from last year.  But, we opted for leftover green frosting stems instead of green gumdrops pictured below.  Though, the spearmint ones weren't too bad.

As I have mentioned in last years party planning, the pasty is made with packaged biscuit dough.  We pulled the biscuit layers apart in the middle.  Set one half in our mini bundt cake pan for the shape and filled them with pumpkin pie filling that was strained for the juice.  We placed the top half on and punched the sides a little to seal.  Once bakes and cooled, we added the frosting stems.  I didn't have a tip large enough for the stem, but found that a sport bottle top pulled off and cut worked quite well.  (This is our whipped cream frosting, so that is why it looks rather runny.)

After dinner and games it was late, so we dismissed the students.  We held a showing of the Chamber of Secrets movie in our makeshift home theatre with popcorn, last years pumpkin juice recipe and butter beer.  This year we acquired a projector and surround sound speakers from family members, so we had a really neat setup in our DADA classroom (aka: living room).



The next morning the plan was breakfast and start classes at 9am.  There was a surprise waiting for our Slytherins (that I failed to get a pic of before they were gone.)  It was in the form of two floating cupcakes suspended in front of their door when the came out of their common room.  They were suspicious but ate them anyway.  ("How thick can you get?!")  They were yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and sprinkles just like Hermione made in the movie.  We used large flat buttons tied to fishing line that was poked up through the cupcake to suspend.  We used an "S" hooks to hang them from the door frame.

We had a busy schedule this year, so were light on the classes.  Besides DADA and Potions, which I've already mentioned, we also had Herbology - Re-potting Mandrakes.



We wanted to make mandrakes that were edible.  We decided on some graham cracker bears and artificial leaf stems glued in the center with homemade cookie icing (this stuff is super easy to make and holds extremely well when set).  I cut apart and washed the artificial stems.  (I think it might have been nice to use mint or other edible greens.)  We potted them in mini ice cream cone pots.  Then, students would repot them into larger cones with some crumbled chocolate cake and then some Oreo cookie crumbs mixed with graham cracker crumbs to resemble dirt. While no one was looking, we thought about replacing the repotted cookie bears with larger mandrake cookies.  These could be part of another game where students would have to revive their classmates with mandrake restorative drafts when they lost our Basilisk game in the evening.

Charms - We came up with charmed pancakes for breakfast.  If you've seen the Youtube video where the guy draws with pancake batter, then you get the idea.  Basically we'd let each student charm the batter into a recognizable image in our magical, or electric, skillet  This is actually really simple and fun.  Just need a squirt bottle, like those used for ketchup or other condiments.  The daughter and I made a Hogwart's crest and some other simpler things like bats and faces.

We had some other ideas for classes that didn't end up happening.

Potions - We want to up the difficulty of the potions class by changing the ingredient game from last year by making students identify the ingredients in a mixture instead of individual ingredients.  For example:  Kool-aid, Sugar and Water could be one potion.

Transfiguration - We thought about making a puzzle game using shapes.  Students would transfigure a rat into a water goblet or teacup by reordering the pieces.

If you've noticed, we've been busy working on pixies, house elves and gnomes and the tutorial for each of them.  I think we've got the pixies and gnomes perfected, and there are some pixies listed in my Etsy store with gnomes to follow.  But, there are still some changes we'd like to make the the house elves.  Hope to have them available soon.